Notice to Centre, CBI on fresh Ruchika case probe

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday issued notices to the Centre and the Central Bureau of Investigation on a PIL seeking a probe into the expulsion of Ruchika Girhotra from a local school and the alleged hardships her family underwent at the instance of disgraced former Haryana director general of police SPS Rathore.

The notices were issued by a division bench comprising Chief Justice Mukul Moudgil and Justice Jasbir Singh to the Union of India, the state of Haryana, CBI and Rathore on the PIL filed by the Global Human Rights Council through its Chairman Ranjan Lakhanpal, a local lawyer.

The notices are returnable on January 27. The PIL submitted said that certain aspects in the Ruchika molestation case needed to be probed so that the family of the victim got justice and the accused, especially those holding high positions, were brought to book.

The PIL comes in the backdrop of the public outrage after Rathore, 67, got away with a light punishment of six-month imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000 for molesting the 14-year-old girl.

The non-governmental organisation sought a thorough probe into the case, including the circumstances leading to Ruchika's suicide three years after her molestation by Rathore in 1990 and booking her brother Ashu in false cases.

The Sacred Heart School, which had expelled Ruchika on the ground of non-payment of fees, is among the respondents in the PIL. The court, however, has not issued any notice to the school.

The budding tennis star committed suicide by consuming poison on December 29, 1993 at her Panchkula residence, unable to bear police harassment and torture of his brother in fake cases.

Bowing to public outburst over the light punishment handed over to the molester officer, the state government had ordered a probe by SIT into various charges against him, including abetment to suicide, which were not considered against him in the first investigation by the CBI.

Rathore had been booked on Tuesday under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code (abetment to suicide) on a complaint lodged with the Panchkula police by Ruchika's brother Ashu. Earlier, FIRs were registered against him on the complaints of Ruchika's father Subhash Chander Girhotra and Ashu for various offences, including attempt to murder, torture and harassment and doctoring the post-mortem report.